Carmakers hope for sales boost as Motor Expo starts
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The automobile market is about to receive a strong boost, with the 31st Thailand International Motor Expo officially kicking off the year-end auto-buying season today at Impact Muang Thong Thani's Challenger Hall.
The event’s media day yesterday saw the global, Asean and Thailand premieres of several models from the 41 brands participating this year.
Also featured at the event are 11 motorcycle marques and 300 other automotive exhibitors.
The biggest highlight yesterday was the global unveiling of the redesigned Mazda2 sedan.
Mazda Motor Corp chairman Seita Kanai said Thailand was one of four global production bases for the company, with cars built at the AutoAlliance Thailand plant in Rayong, and was the first country outside Japan to produce transmissions for Mazda vehicles.
The Mazda2, available in both five-door hatchback and sedan body types, is powered by a 1.5-litre SKYACTIV diesel engine with 105 horsepower and 250 newton-metres of torque.
In Thailand the Mazda2 qualifies for Phase 2 of the government’s eco-car programme, allowing Mazda to benefit from a low 17-per-cent excise duty and various investment privileges.
Other new products that are expected to sell like hotcakes at the show are the Honda HR-V compact sport-utility vehicle, the Nissan X-Trail mid-sized SUV and the Mitsubishi Triton pickup.
Toyota, the largest automaker in the country, does not have a new model but is present at the show and is offering strong sales promotions for existing models. Toyota is scheduled to launch the newest version of its Hilux pickup truck in Thailand next year.
Kwanchai Paphatphong, the show’s organiser, said the trend this year revolved around SUVs and crossovers – segments that were becoming popular among Thai buyers.
Meanwhile on the luxury side, Mercedes-Benz has launched the new C-Class BlueTEC Hybrid, which is the company’s third hybrid vehicle in its Thai line-up.
Arch-rival BMW introduced the M4 sports sedan, and is also showing the futuristic i8 plug-in hybrid sports car.
Despite the Thai automobile market in 2014 falling more than 36 per cent compared with last year, Mercedes-Benz has been able to grow sales by more than 11 per cent thanks mainly to the introduction of small models such as the A-Class, CLA and GLA.
Several sports-car makers including Lamborghini are not present this year, although Bentley, Porsche and Maserati are displaying their latest products.
There are two concept vehicles being displayed – the Hyundai HND-9 and Subaru Viziv. Subaru also staged Asean launches for two of its production models, the Legacy and the Forester crossover.
According to Kwanchai, as many as 50,000 orders are expected to be placed at the Motor Expo this year.
“Last year the event was affected by the tough political situation and the lasting effects of the first-car-buyer scheme, but as many as 41,000 orders were placed and 1.3 million visitors came,” he said.
“This year, we expect that the number of orders will grow to 50,000 while the show’s attendance will grow slightly to 1.5 million visitors.”
He said that although sales this year had been poor, sales in October were more buoyant and were down only 20 per cent year on year. The worst has passed and it is time for the market to recover, he added.
